Loading and booting operating systems on a new computer server can take quite some time. Often it has to be performed by a computer administrator or information technology specialists on site local to the computer server at a data center. The time involved to load and boot operating systems on site can limit how a computer server may be used in a data center.
Data centers often have one or more storage area network devices in communication with a computer server over a local area network where data can be stored. However, communication between the storage area network devices and computer servers is often with a storage area networking protocol and over specialized storage cables to provide a storage function. Large files sizes are sometimes transferred between the storage area network devices and computer servers at high data rates.
In contrast, Ethernet cables and an Ethernet communication protocol is most often used in a network for general network communication. Small file sizes are often transferred using Ethernet communications protocols over the internet, such as email for example. Transferring large file sizes, such as an operating system, can take quite some time using Ethernet communications protocols over the internet.
Remote client users may desire to use different types or versions of operating systems on a computer server. For example, one remote client user may desire to use a Linux virtual machine in a computer server while another remote client user may desire to use Microsoft Windows in the same computer server.
A first computer server may experience a failure, be overloaded, or require upgrading and a second computer server needs to be started up to provide the same operating systems and virtual machines to remote client users. Loading a plurality of operating system software into the second computer server over a standard network connection may take considerable time that can inconvenience remote client users.